nearlyheaven

Hungarian Vizsla litter due end of April !

It does not seem very long since Meg (Bicton Bear it All) and Leko (Visions of Success) had their first litter of ten puppies, however it was eleven months ago and it is now  time to start again.

Meg and Leko have successfully mated and the puppies should be born towards the end of April  they will be ready to leave their mother eight weeks after birth.

We have five puppies reserved already, in fact some prospective owners have been waiting for a considerable time for this litter to be conceived.

Many of you saw Meg's illustrious father in the final ring at Crufts in 2009 in fact he is the most successful Vizsla in Britain after conquering all comers in his native Australia.

I have been delighted to meet many of our previous puppies who regularly call into see me or spend a short holiday while their owners go back to Britain.

Thank you all for the photographs and updates they are most appreciated.

Sue's Diary The Christmas Holidays................

I do hope that all of you had a good Christmas and I wish you a Happy new Year for 2010!

As mentioned in my previous post,my initial intention for my Christmas break was to drive to England with my youngest Vizsla "Teddy Bear" to spend some time with my family for Christmas but also to go to Suffolk  to learn how to teach Teddy  so that he can compete in Field Trials in the future. 
Lucia was left "holding the fort " she had her hands full with guests in the cottage, my mother, and  several  extra  Vizsla dogs arriving for their Christmas Holidays ,while their owners travelled to England to be with friends and family.

I set off with Teddy in the car and managed the long, boring drive to Calais, I arrived in the evening and I duly found the hotel which I had booked for us for the night.

It was with a little trepidation that I brought Teddy into the hotel ,this was the first time that he had left home alone, without the company of his dog  family, therefore I was worried that if I left him in the  room during the time that  I went for my dinner in the hotel restaurant, he may start howling or something similar.  

He settled into the room and onto his bed without a murmur, I was very proud of him.

I arrived at the restaurant and was asked by the waiter "where is the beautiful dog" ? I replied that I did not think that he could come into the dining room. "please bring him, we all want to meet this unusual beautiful dog". Of course I went back for Teddy and he obediently joined me at my dining table.

Teddy" was the star of the show, the waiters petted him and the other guests admired him.It was amazing how one dog entered that room and the atmosphere changed immediately.Everyone was smiling and talking about him in fact he was the topic of conversation throughout the evening. As I was leaving the restaurant, a waiter brought a huge bowl of meat scraps from the kitchen "this is for his supper" he said.

I shall soon have to start a fan club for him!

The next morning  we went for a long walk on the beach,He loved every minute of it and was fascinated by the waves and the sea gulls.

We left the hotel and arrived at the ferry terminal, to find that Teddy's passport was not in order. Despite all my efforts the man at P&O  would not even listen to me.So it was about turn and home we went!

In fact it was a blessing in disguise as upon returning home, I discovered that Lucia had had a big problem with "Pasha" our stallion, our neighbours mare was "in season" and Pasha had smashed some fences trying to get to her.Lucia had had to put him in the stable however he was neighing and banging his door and causing her sleepless nights.

We solved that problem by sending "Pasha" away  for his holidays, to commence his training for the eventing world.

I managed to get a flight to the UK a few days later and I spent one week with my daughter Kirsty and her partner Sam, and the second week with my eldest son Craig, his wife  Collen and my two granddaughters Natalya (3) and Il ana ( 20 months).It really was good to spend quality time with my family as owing to my other commitments it is impossible for me to return to England very often. 

One of my Christmas presents was the Cesar Milan dog whisperer books"Cesar's Way and "Be the Pack Leader" I was fascinated with his  training methods.His philosophy  applies to  humans too.Cesar advocates  at least 45 minutes brisk exercise for all breeds of dog every morning, this allows the dog to burn off energy,only then does he commence their training sessions.

I have owned and bred dogs all of my life, however I learnt more about  the dogs mind  from those two books  in a week than I have in breeding dogs for  the last forty years.

Every prospective dog owner should read the book prior to purchasing a dog.

Indeed I have seen a huge improvement in my dogs since using his methods.

Yesterday I walked for some miles on the snow covered lanes with all five of my dogs walking behind me without leads, they sat quietly when a car wanted to pass and they were a pleasure to own !   

  My obedient dogs!

Since returning to France I have had another enforced holiday, as the snow has curtailed flying lessons  at present.

With the constant freezing conditions ,we spend many extra hours per day ensuring that all the animals have sufficient food and I am  now a dab hand with the sledgehammer breaking the ice on the water troughs.

   

   
   

  Hope the weather is not going to stay like this for too long!

   

 

Merry Christmas and a Happy new Year to our Vizsla owners !

I am leaving home  tomorrow to drive to the UK for Christmas to spend time with my family. I am going to Suffolk for a short time after Christmas with my youngest Vizsla "Teddy Bear" to visit a friend, who trains Vizsla dogs for field trials.He has promised to teach me to to train Teddy .. sounds complicated but I hope that it works.

The reason for this new venture, is that the rules in France state that for a dog to become a champion they must obtain a "good"  in a field trial as well as obtaining top wins in championship dog shows, my best dog has won over twenty of these prizes,all over France but he cannot become a champion as he has never been trained for field trials and he is too old  to commence now.

This time, I am starting early with the puppy and I hope that I shall find the time to get this one to become  a champion, as can be seen in the photographs he is very laid back about his training.I have done some training with him at home and he has been very good ( most of the time) I shall enjoy spending time with him "one to one" instead of having five Vizslas constantly  vying for my attention.      

Normally, I find that for teaching him things like sit and stay ,he responds better in the house where he does not get too distracted.

However in the huge fields of England, which are full of pheasants, I think that I shall have a bit of a struggle to contain him.!

I will keep you posted.

Please send us you best photograph of the year for the January Vizsla picture parade.

To all of our Vizsla owners Have a Merry  Christmas and a Happy New Year!

We hope to have a new litter of puppies in the spring.